NORWALK — Nothing comes easy during the CIF Southern Section Division 1 baseball playoffs, and La Mirada is proof of that after having to squeeze out every run to pull out a win in its first-round game.
La MIrada manufactured runs in every which way, small ball and long ball, and came away with a 4-3 victory over Oaks Christian on Friday at Glenn High.
La Mirada (22-6) will be on the road in the second round Tuesday against Foothill (22-8), a 7-5 first-round winner over South Hills.
“Runs are at a premium in the playoffs,” La Mirada coach Jimmy Zurn said. “You gotta find a way to win any type of game — a slugfest, a one-nothing game — and we’ve done a heck of a job being able to take advantage of other people’s mistakes. I thought we had a lot deep at-bats that drove (Oaks Christian starting pitcher Jack Laubacher’s) pitch count up and got some clutch hits.”
The Matadores, who defeated the Lions 6-5 earlier in the season, relied on small ball and a solo home run in the bottom of the fourth inning by Tyler Primanto to build a 4-0 lead.
Through the first four innings, Matadores starting pitcher Walker Calvo looked in control as the Lions (14-14) struggled to push runs across despite loading the bases in the second inning.
Oaks Christian’s big breakthrough came in the fifth inning with one swing of Elijah Clayton’s bat. After Calvo, an Army West Point commit, put two runners on via hit batter and a single, Clayton smashed Calvo’s final pitch of the afternoon over the fence in left field for a three-run home run that cut La Mirada’s lead to 4-3.
Clayton finished 2 for 3 with a home run and a double.
La Mirada freshman pitcher Luke Armijo came in and extinguished any hope of a Lions rally. He earned an eight-out save and struck out four batters.
“There was a pitch before the (home run) and I thought, ‘Why’d you take that pitch?’” Oaks Christian coach Royce Clayton said of Eljiah Clayton’s at-bat. “(Elijah) got a pitch he could handle and made a good swing. It energized us and I felt we had a real good shot. (Armijo) came in and did a good job and held us at bay.”
The Matadores struck first in the opening frame without recording a hit. With runners on second and third with one out, a hard-hit chopped ground ball by Jacob Oropeza allowed Maverek Russell Jr. to score from third.
La Mirada continued to manufacture runs despite not recording a hit until the third inning. The Matadores doubled their lead in the bottom of the third inning after back-to-back Oaks Christian errors.
A hard-hit ground ball by Jacob Oropeza to Oaks Christian second baseman Joshua Brown, who failed to field the ball cleanly, allowed Aiden Aguayo to score from second base.
Oropeza, who finished with two RBIs, scored two batters later on a Sebastian DeAvila ground-rule double.
The Lions committed three errors and gave the Matadores a 3-0 lead after three innings.
Primanto’s solo home run in the fourth inning proved to be the deciding factor in the Matadores’ win.
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